Fight for Freedom
++ Edge of the Rust Sea ++ A vast swirling desert of oxidized metal in rust reds, oranges and bronzes, that stretches as far as the optic can sea. Violent winds and rust storms sweep across the area, and without proper protection, a Cybertronian can quickly become blind and lost, or worse, eaten away where they stand by the erosive oxides blasting across their frames. There are rumors of facilities located somewhere deep into the "sea", but dangerous mecha-fauna and tribes of roaming mechcannibals known as 'Slicers' make the prospect of travel even more daunting for those who feel confident enough to brave the storms. Contents: Cascade Grimlock Wheeljack Exits: N Canyons E Stanix W Kaon As a being of power, it is not customary for one such as you to be the prey. You were hunted, lured into a trap with minions of our hunter to weaken you before he struck. He gave the name 'Maggot', proving to be a beast himself of ancient power. A primordial, one that existed in an era before even those of the likes of Chimera. It is this figure that address you both now. From stasis you will rise, the effects of Maggot's stunning tentacle strikes wearing off. You are on the floor of a cavern deep, deep beneath the Sea of Rust. The ceiling is lite with an eery glow of a fungus-like growth. There is a stale air that carries through this cavern to either end as there are connections to other caves beyond. Grimlock, his weapons beside him, and Chimera on the other side, her weapons next to here, are the only things in this room. "Upon the victor I will dine," Maggot says from... wherever he is hiding. His creepy hollow voice echoes off the cold walls. "The loser shall become my minion, set to fetch the next feast. To be a worm is not a fate to be desired. To be my meal is an honor. A gift to be appreciated as your power will add to my own. One must stand and the other must fall; one must be devoured and the other must serve. Now... fight, fight for the right to add your glory to my own!" Chimera had never fully encountered the likes of Maggot before, even in the past. Yes, she'd known of scavengers who fed upon the dead her kind left behind, but to think there was one as powerful as he... It's rather enraging to be defeated by a corpse picking worm, so Chimera is plenty mad when she starts to come to. With a grunt she sits up and holds a hand to her head, shaking off the last of Maggot's stasis effects before looking up and around at his echoing voice. "Not in a million lifetimes, worm! I will kill you myself when I find you!" And then she turns to her opponent and pauses. Is that.. no. Can't be. The smell is off and.. yet there's a trace of something familiar there. Something that begins to draw her fury. "/You/." She hisses under her breath and stands, weapons in hand. "You smell of that faker! The one who stole my kin's shape! Hnn.. And I see you have, too." It rolls in hard and sour, conciousness trickling in as his systems finally reboot from the cybertoxin. The anger helps burn the lead from his limbs, not at a full boil... but there. He was always just a little angry these days. It was a condition. He voices his displeasure with a growl, it's like stones scraping together, harsh, rough. His optics flicker to life, yellow light beaming from his visor as it drinks in the dimly lit cave... as well as the hilt of his flame sword and his double barreled rocket launcher. The first is readily brough to hand, fingers coiling around it and closing it into a fist. The second is tucked away, some part of his anatomy opening up to envelope and draw it inside of himself for safe keeping. Because the safest place to keep a rocket launcher is inside of you? Slowly, he lumbers to his feet, his sword ignites, a torch in the dim light, vivid and bright, he holds it up to let it shine. In it's light her can see his fellow prisoner all the better... She doesn't look like the type that will readily join forces against a mutual enemy to their shared benefit... Doesn't sound like it either. "Lady, I don't have a slaggin' clue what you're talking about." he greets her, leveling the tip of his sword upon her from across the cavern, "So you can go ahead and shove all of that right up whatever you've got." a he's a gentleman. "And you, MAGGOT, if you want to see a fight, wiggle your wreck out here and I'll give you your last!" From the shadows, Maggot snickers. The rattle of that bounces off the cavern walls but sounds like it retreats further into the maze-like system of caves beyond this one. "When one of you lays defeated I shall appear. To feeeeeast. I was granted only the struts, cast off after greater beasts had fed but no longer. I shall dine on the mightest, grow stronger! Win and die; lose and you serve Maggot for eternity!" A deep, unhappy growl rises up from Chimera's chest, displeased that this imposter would insult her. Taking him head on like she did with Slag would be a great pleasure, but unfortunately they seem to have a bigger problem looming over them. Looking around again, her audials twitching, she listens to Maggot taunt them further. This earns a scoff from her. "Not really giving us motivation to fight." She barks back, then looks back to Grimlock and eyes him up and down. It makes her tank almost turn, but it may be the only way. "Listen here, faker. Looks like we both got taken down by this Maggot fragger, so I suggest we go kill him instead of play this stupid game of his. Deal?" Because seriously, what's he gonna do if they don't fight? Come out and fight them himself or send his minions? Bring it! The sword tip lowers, Grimlock's optics searching the cavern, the tunnels, trying to discern shapes in the odd, glowing fungus above. The sound bounces too badly, he could be just in the shadows and the Dynobot Commander would never know. He breaths another snarl, coolant venting from the strange, teeth-like things that flank his mouthplate. "I really wish I'da said that first." he uttered, attention turning back upon her. Where the hell did she come up with the name of Faker, anyway? Crazy primordial broad, must have been banging her head on some walls for too long. He looked nothing like a Faker. He's more of a Heavy Duty or a Thunder Quake. Something grand and imperious, something like, "Grimlock." Yerah, that, "The name's Grimlock, not Faker." he educates her, a thumb jabbed into his chest plate. "Unless you want me to call you Sawed Off or Pintsize, you'll remember that." he instructs, jabbing a finger towards her instead of his sword. "Now c'mon,-" because he's in charge, of course. "You're right, unless he wants to take us both on, he's just some glitcher in the shadows. Lets find a way out." and fully expecting her to follow, he makes for one of the side passages. Chimera actually snorts, unable to keep the smirk from her lips. "Pintsize, ha. Well at least you've got humor, I'll give you that." Considering they're pretty much the same height. "It's Chimera." She's a bit skeptical about him leading, so she simply convinces herself that they're just moving in the same direction as she sheathes her hunting knife and keeps bow in hand while following, the energy string glowing softly as she keeps an arrow nocked. "Dunno how experienced you are with these worms, but their tunnels can go for miles." The femme comments at his side, glancing his way now and then as if to keep an optic on him. "If worse comes to worse we'll have to dig our way out." This cave will empty into another. Then another. If there is a system to navigating these depths, it is not readily evident. Along the way are the scattered remains of bots both ancient and new, some far too rusted to identify even what part they might have once been. Slicer corpses are also here, devoured it would seem from the inside out. A fresh carcass might show the process best as there is a hole in the head-plating and within, there are no innards left. Liquidified and then removed somehow (hint: sucked out) the now-empty hull serves as a hint to the future that Maggot promised the victor. To the loser? One of Maggot's minions does come for you - but not in attack. This is a much smaller worm than the beast Grimlock dispatched but it is one familiar to Chimera. Grubber is one of Maggot's eyeless worm-like monsters. It quivers as it waits to be found and when it speaks, it does so with a strained sigh. This is something it has said many times before. "Once I was Redshriek, a flyer. I knew the skies. When I was captured, I was given the same speech as you. I elected to not fight and what happened... he ripped out my brain and my spark. He cast them in... in this *thing*. I must serve his will. I cannot resist, none can. To lose means this is your fate. He is patient. He can wait for centuries between feedings. The only way out is to win." And thus to be consumed. Here, around this worm - named Grubber - the air becomes steadily warmer. Pheromones too are pumped into the air, ones that call to the more base, primal instincts. The kind that suggest of the joys of the hunt, the pleasure of the taste of fresh metal... "Chimera, right." he uttered, commiting it to memory. His attention drifts, optics narrowing as he remembers the when his world went Red. He could almost recall the taste of the creature's energon, the noxious fluids that bathed over him as he ripped his way into the beast. "Know'm inside and out." uttered Grimlock bitterly as he blindly lead the way, sword thrust forward as a torch in the darkness... and something for anything that charged them from the front to be impaled on. Hes knelt down, inspecting another wreck, checking for unspent ammunitions or functional weapons, when Grubber appears. His sword devours the air in a crackling 'WHOOMP!' as he turns and levels his blade... at what was supposed to be a much larger creature. His sword point and his gaze lowers until they come to rest upon Grubber. "Pathetic." he all but spits the word, his insides twist with disgust revulsion... and the stirring of a beast. He notes the increased heat and huffs his displeasure, "Damned heat... must be near a thermal seam..." he reasons even as he fights the haze that drifts into his thoughts, monosyllabic and urging, it speaks in the third person. He grunts his internal efforts and tosses his head, "Chimera!" he barks, venting his anger towards her, "Kill that scrap pile and.. and lets keep moving." he pants, "Hurry up, you're slowing me down!" Chimera only really gave attention to some of the more recent corpses, inspecting and sniffing at them to get some semblence of a scent to follow. Unfortunately it's hard to pick out a single smell, especially an older one, in tunnels that have been well used and are just a highway of them. But one begins to stand out the further they go. One she's encountered before.. And it's Grubber, the other half of the two she encountered in the rust sea. "Grub--.. Redshriek." She corrects herself, frowning at the worm. In a way she pities him, denied death and stolen from his body. No one should be denied to return to the Allspark, in her opinion. "It isn't that simple. We're not the type to give into some megalomaniac fragger's demands and.. and.." Something begins to feel.. wrong. Her mind feels like it's stuck in mud at first, but it steadily begins to focus to a sharp point upon Grubber like tunnel vision. "What is.. happening.. Rrgh!" Hands come up to hold her head, having more trouble resisting than Grimlock is due to her purely bestial nature. A single word booms like thunder in her head. KILL. And it only takes Grimlock's single order to drive her mind over the edge. With a roar she drops her bow and transforms, her giant altmode springing atop Grubber and pinning him with her head rearing up as she booms, her mind struggling through the haze to try and justify her action. "You are.. released to the Allspark!" May he enjoy the freedom from this hellish existence and revel in the afterlife, for her action is swift as jaws part and clamp down on whatever passes for a neck on Grubber, tearing out his throat and severing the main cables with it. The worm dies as the angler that baited it intended. With a tone of sadness in that last moment, Redshriek is able to say 'I am sorry' and for what will readily become apparent. If Grubber had been given eyes it would have had a look of thanks, to be spared from what it had become. Maggot has sacrificed his minions before, and has done so again. That building heat erupts as Grubber is ripped open, ripped apart. Thick jets of its corrupted energon spray out, rich in Chimera's jaw and painting her underside with its sticky, muddish slimy oil texture. That base, bestial scent now bathes the cavern - and in particular - the primordial that has tasted it. Grimlock was less surprised by the outcome and more surprised by the fact that she obeyed at all... Were his mind not plagued by the creeping presene of the monster inside of him, he would have written it off as just his own commanding charisma. Her change, he envies it. It doesn't split her appart, it doesn't flay her alive and reassmble her as a monster, she is what she is and she becomes it so smoothely. This is her natural state... but not his. Is this what she meant by Faker? It was still a stupid name. She was a stupid femme for calling him that, it wasn't his name. Him name am, his name is... HE GRIMLOCK! The heat, that feeling, it was coming from the worm, he was a trap... It all dawned on Grimlock as the red closed in, as ordered thought slipped away between his fingers, as the rage piled down on him like a avalanche. "IT... TRAP! CHIMERA AM IDIOT!" he bellowed, his yellow optical band bleeding away into a crimson glare. He felt the first stabs of agony as his transformation cog ground and twisted inside of him, turning in unnatural and un intended ways. "gr..GRAAAHL?!" His hands clapped to the side of his head as it all shattered at last and then his arms fell away as he collapsed, the spinal ridges of the beast erupting from his back, not sliding into place but ripping through his hull, wet and gleaming with his own energon. He crumbled and hammered the ground with his fists, shattering the ancient stone. His arms contorted, shifted, all of him did. Soon he was the saurian terror that was locked away inside, a lean, powerful body, jaws filled with vicious teeth. His world was red, his mind burned with anger, anger that could not be contained. His muzzle swept this way and that until it found Chimera. This was her fault... and she was a interloper into his territory because everything was his territory, HE AM GRIMLOCK, HE AM KING! With a thunderous roar he bellowed his challenge. Were Chimera lucid right now, she would have been happy to delivery death unto Grubber, to send him into the dark, comforting embrace that will carry him to the afterlife. But she can barely focus, her sight red with feral rage and eager to kill every last being in its sights. She's even keen on eating his corpse, but she only gets a few bites in before Grimlock's vicious transformation and his bestial trumpet bring her energon stained head around. She heeds his challenge and answers in kind, her mane bristling and crackling with spark of electricity as she roars back. "YOU WILL DIE, FAKER!!" The saber-toothed feline howls furiously at the saurian and sprints towards him, leaping and aiming to slam into him full force while digging razor claws in while teeth seek to latch onto his throat. Grimlock is done talking, he is mentally incapable of anything more then infuriated roars and monsterous bellows. Her accusation of him being a faker is ignored, she is a threat, a challenger, prey. He barrels forward to meet her, legs stretching out to hurry him across the space between. He snarls, mouth gaping wide to reveal those terrible teeth once more. She just manages to beath him to the punch, her bounding pounce carrying her to him before he was entirely ready for the meeting. She has the upper hand, claws digging into his chrome hide, opening rents before her hooker claws find purchase and anchor her to him. Fluids seep from the cuts, viscous and slick, gleaming. A yelp of pain is her reward, feral and wild. They are like a set of spurrs into his flanks, only driving him into further fury. He thrashes to dislodge her spinning and bucking, her claws digging in with every toss and turn, sinking them deeper but fouling her attempt to sink her fangs into his throat. All she gets is a awkward sort of headbutt for her trouble, skulls colliding as he tosses his head this way and that. Through the static of impact, he can just see one of her hind legs slip, or dangle. His long neck cranes around and his jaws gape wide, readying to snap down on the limp like a bear trap so that he could use the leverage to rip her free and send her flying away with another whip of his head. Chimera had wanted to go for the neck, as intended, but Grimlock's violent thrashing leaves her only able to cling and keep from being flung from him. Only when his struggling lessens does she try to bite again, but gaping maw only emits a yowl of pain as his massive jaw snaps down upon a leg. He nearly pulls it from the joint when yanking her away, deeply embedded claws scoring lines and bringing some panels with them before he tears her off completely and slams her into the tunnel wall. That would put out most average mechs, but the crumpled form of the lion pushes itself up with a pained, deathly hiss that ratchets into a gutteral bellow from inner forge as glow becomes visible in her throat. Squaring her stance, Chimera's optics flash bright before she inhales and roars, flames errupting from her mouth in a trumpet of plasma to wash over her foe. Servos are revealed, their workings laid bear byt the hide she had taken with her in her flight. They compress and hum, whirr and piston as he stalks towards her, their throbbing pain a dagger in his side that continues to twist and dig into him as he stalks after her, a rumble of anger sounding in his throat. He fully expected that to be all but the entire fight for her, he could now approach and rtend her open at his leisure! He was proven wrong of course, a stream of super-heated matter rewarding his hubris. It rolls over him, scorching agony that causes crome plating to boil and buckle along his frame, turning exposed workings into savaged cinders. The cry is high pitched, agonized, wild and mad. He is pained, he is angry, he is all but blinded by the flames, a helish spectre engulfed by them as he rushes head long into her streaming breath. He is no stranger to it, of course. Slag can produce such conflagratory echalations as well... He is in no state to compare them. Instead he charges, rearing up as the stream of flames narrows into the finer cone that erupts from her maw. It washes across the narrow plow of his chest like waves against the prow of a ship, parting to either side before he twists. The flames wash over his side as he turns, his long, powerful tail hurtling around behind him in a wide arc that has it smashing right into her if she cannot cease her fiary expulsion in time! From the shadows, he moves. The truth is, Maggot was never too far away. He watched, he followed. Now that the energon is fresh, it has become too much. His hunger is far too great. The need to feed consumes him. Perhaps he will not spare the loser of this match and instead feast on them both. It is a loud slurping that will give him away, as he is paces away, kneeling at the floor to lap at spilled fluids. HIs robes are gone now and Maggot's form is revealed. That domed helmet is there and from it, like a jellyfish, are tendrils - the ones he has stung you both with. His body is wirey, thin, to the struts and his hands and feet bear long sharp claws, great for ripping apart a body to feed on the remains. Chimera continues her gout of fire even as Grimlock charges at her, backing up and trying to melt him to a puddle of slag before he even reaches her. But the dinobot is not a force to be reckoned with as he sweeps in and lashes out with that thick tail, striking her hard in the side and cutting off inner flamethrower as she's smacked and sent flying further down the tunnel where she bounces a few times before coming to a skidding halt. Chimera may be tough like her breathren, but even she is starting to show her pain as she huffs in a bit of effort, thin trail of smoke curling from her mouth. Looking back to him as she struggles to her feet, the femme pauses when optics zero in on the heathenous Maggot feasting on an energon puddle. It's in this moment that something snaps in her. Something natural and not at all forced by the pheramones that currently drive her mad. Maggot is a carrion eater, a vulture good for nothing but cleaning up her scraps. And yet now the memory lingers at the back of her frothing mind about how he wants to climb the food chain and feast on her instead. That will not stand. Screaming a mighty roar even more powerful than before, Chimera springs forward towards Grimlock, electricity now coursing like a storm around her body. There is death in her optics. Pure, untapped, abyssal death that only the god Mortilus himself can deliver. But her target is no longer Grimlock, Chimera weaving around him and leaping to smash into Maggot, no fear of his stinging tentacles given as she disharges an explosive burst of electricty the moment she connects. The flames linger for a few moments more but dwindle quickly enough, tongues of them remain, flickering and flapping, devouring some remnant of fuel until they wither and die, leaviung the beast to stand there, smoke streaming from his form, chrome armor left black and scorched where it was not reduced to ruin and slag. The pain is energizing, his eyes stream with light, a hellish red fury that burns brightly in his eye sockets as they lock upon Chimera once more. She is might but he is the greater, he is the king of beasts. His maw gapes and he issues a wrathful hiss and chargesa towards her once more. They will meet in another flurry of fang and claw, he will end her! She draws near, his neck rocks back before it allows his head to snap forward, a darting chomp that brings his fangs down on.... Nothing! She had darted out of the way, neatly weaving around him and carrying on to something else. Fleeing? She might be faster but he will hunt her, he will stalk her here in the dark and when she at last collapses of exhaustion, he will be there to- No, not fleeing. There is another. The Beast knows the other better than Grimlock, it's poisonous touch, it's words, it's smell. Scarred, seared lips draw away from dripping fangs. Vengence, terrible and vicious. He will have it. He turns, tail whipping around behind him as his body veers around behind his head and falls in line with the hurried scramble towards the other. Chimera will reach him first... but that is fine. He need not be the first but just the last. Breaches in his armor allow a light to shine through, like a terrible furnace being stoked in his heart, there is a light, he draws breath through nasal vents, allowing it to mix and fan the flames that gleam in his battered, smouldering chest. His head rears back his jaws part, flames lick like a hundred eager tongues between his teeth before his maw gapes wide and he lets the flames billow forth in a massive conflagratory roar of light and heat! They may engulf Chimera as well... He is unconcerned! There is a *THOOOOOM! as that explosion takes Maggot off his feet. The thing was so involved in its feeding that it failed to realize that it had been spotted, much less that it was about to be attacked. In a failing of tentacles and boney frame, Maggot slams into the cavern wall after that collision to then crash to the floor. He looks up in time to see... Fire. Maggot screams, scorches as he bathes in that heat. After he has endured the needles of that electrical overcharge. When Grimlock's breath stops, there he sits, glowing and steaming - yet still alive. "I have crawled through molten rivers for scraps. I have plunged to the deepest depths of seas of liquid metal for morsels. You cannot harm me, not in a way that will kill me. I endure all. I am MAGGOT!" He roars as he staggers to his feet, extending those long clawed hands. "I cannot be killed - I feast on the dead! I am absolute and you will know my power when you are in my belly and I am fat on your strength!" Still smoldering, he grabs for Chimera, meaning to get any part of her he can grab and then fling her at Grimlock. If he gets her or not, he rushes at Grimlock, slashing for the dino's legs. Chimera wants to rip Maggot apart until he is nothing. Because he /is/ nothing. Only a squirming little /worm/ in her optics. Even his ramblings mean little to her as she circles him and readies to pounce her prey. But Grimlock wishes death upon Maggot as well and joins her efforts, though her safety obviously isn't in his mind when he scorches both of them in his own inner flames. Roaring her fury and pain, Chimera is quick to jump from the fire like a cat from water, edges of her scale armor still glowing red hot and mane pinging and popping from the mix of static and heat. Irritated, she shakes her partially molten and blackened frame, only given a moment to recover before Maggot seizes her and tosses her straight into Grimlock. Barreling headlong into the saurian, Chimera lays there at his feet a moment, the continuous battery starting to get to her. But she won't give up, not now. Not when she has to put someone in their place. Grunting, she pushes herself back upright and glances to the best near her while Maggot charges. She may still be brimming with feral rage, but a lucidity ghosts on the edges of her mind, allowing her to give him a look that suggests they do this together. It's their only way to freedom. And so she meets Maggot as he rushes for Grimlock, using her own massive claws to swipe out at the mech's slim torso and legs. Should she catch him, the beast will move in to snap large jaws around spindly legs and hold fast to keep him in place while hopefully Grimlock gets the other half. They were both brought into this mess, so they might as well finish it together. It's hard to steer yourself when caught in a fast tide, your will dashed upon the rocks of rage and fury... but Grimlock manages, his power taking hold of the beast for just a minute when Chimera is sent hurtling towards him. This is why she is not treated like a morsal to snap up, why she is not something to be deflected by another battering swipe of his tail. The beast turns, his shoulder presented as a barricade to halt her flight. Metal clashes against metal and he barks his displeasure and pain, sent teetering over and crashing down onto his side! Legs kick, head and tail thrash, arms claw impotently. It takes some doing but he raises. Were it not for Chimera's timely intervention, Maggot could have been upon him before he was ready. Instead, Grimlock has managed to right himself by the time the scavanger can reach him. A rent opens on his leg and the limb gives, going lame as the monster stoops on it's one remaining leg, bellowing his pain to the cavern's roof. But where does this leave Maggot? Standing there, so close, so terribly close... Burn him! NO. Another exertion, another mustering of resolve. He cannot control the monster but he can goad it. It doesn't want to just burn Maggot, for what the scrap eater did to them, it wants something so much worse! Hell burns in the eyes of the creature, it bores into Maggot as something rumbles in the beasts throat. It's jaws part, jagged rows of gleaming teeth present themselves as the maw opens. Lurching, he brings them down on Maggot's shoulder, teeth like knives seek purchase in his torso before the powerful actuators in Grimlock's neck pulls, rooting himself as best he can was he turns his head away and tries to rip Chimera's prize from her clutches in a macabra tug of war! If Chimera and Grimlock were to make a wish to be free... it is about to be granted. Maggot has long been a worm, a thing that has crawled and wiggled in the dark, moving from scrap-to-scrap. He is no fighter, no beast of power. He would have done well to have been more clever, but Maggot was not built to be smart. He is easily outmatched by creatures that have had to fight for they prey rather than finding the bones to pick over or luring into a trap. In the end, his attack was fueled by his need to feed - no, his *desire* to feed. He could have waited, been patient but... "What, no, release me," he nearly squeaks, his hollow haunting voice nearly shrill in an instant panic. Neither of them should be this strong to still be able to resist him! How did he miscalculate... "Maggot cannot be held, not when ther-...!" That's when the first sickening crack from within happens when Grimlock clamps down on his other half. His tendrils quiver, ready to lash out,, but as he is pulled in two different directions they seem unsure where to go. Then they go slack at the next tug. "NO! Rel-...*" There's another crack, one that reverberates down his spine. And then.. he gives way. There is a spray of wretched spoiled oil and thick near-toxic energon as Maggot is split in half, ripped open. He writhes to the end, seeking to squirm away from the torture of being ripped apart but it is fruitless for him to even try. Strong as he is, he is no match for the fate he awaits him. In that combined call to action, Maggot is the loser in that tugging game. He is undone with a mighty *crack*. Death is the only outcome when caught between the jaws of two giant predators, Chimera snarling as she pulls back against Grimlock, fighting for Maggot like a rabbit between wolves. And she may not get to deliver the final blow on her own, but my god is that sound of his body groaning under the stress of being stretched and the cracking of joints music to her audials. Teeth only clamp down harder as Maggot struggles in their jaws and her lips curl at the rancid fluids he spews, but she ignores it, too busy focusing on dangling wires and sparking internals. With their might combined it isn't long before the finally connections holding him together completely rip apart and he seperates in two, leaving each of them with their own half. Chimera would gladly eat well won prey, but Maggot isn't even worthy of being feasted upon and is simply spat out. Maggot will recieve no prayers from her to guide him to the next life, for there will be no next life for one such as him. No shining utopia of the Allspark awaits him. Only the swirling, endless abyss... With their task complete and their freedom earned, Chimera vents in exhaustion and takes a step back to compose herself as her head begins to finally clear. "May you.. burn in the Pit for eternity.." The beast mutters once she's lucid enough and slowly transforms, standing with a tired grunt and looking to Grimlock. He took as much of a beating as she did and that slashed leg doesn't look very good... She could very well leave him here to fend for himself, but... "C'mon.." The femme says softly and moves to his side to help him continue their journey out of here. She can smell fresh air, at least, so they must be close to the exit. Tension builds and builds until there is finally the release of metal rending apart in it's horrid shriek. So braced against the strain of their murderous bout, the beast staggers, stumbling hapghazerdly on his bad leg until he smashed into the tunnel wall, bracing himself against it's surfgace for just a moment before recovering enough to balance on his bad leg and good. A toss of his head sent the remains clattering away like rubbish. The beast was not natural, it did not feed, it just butchered... and Maggot tasted horrible. Satisfied, the beast snorted but so battered and wary, it could not even roar it's triumph. Maggot was slain but there was still... there was still one more! He was weak but so was she, he would not flee her, he would slay her just like he had- NO. The waning snarl of a beast mustering itself faded, rage was spent, the crimson hell of it's eyes dimmed and bled away until yellow shone like dawn following a storm. With a ragged huff, the beast slumped and collapsed in on itself. Parts retracted in painful, metal screaches as it's transformation cog ground and contorted unnaturally. There were no claws or fangs to Grimlock, there were treads and cannon turrets... He would make a horrible toy, his transformation driving engineers into mad fits as they tried to reason him out. But there he was, panting, venting coolant in a heavy, misting heave of a sigh. One arm hung limp at his side as he rose on unsteady legs. "Fin. Tired of this damn place..." he uttered as he trudged after her i heavy, ponderous steps. Chimera, just as tall as her fellow captive, would come up to Grimlock's side once he transforms back to his root mode and help brace him, slinging one of his arms over her shoulders. In her optics he's still a fake, a theif of her kind's appearance, but.. they endured the same thing here today, being pitted against one another against their will for the amusement of some sick worm. And because of that, as well as his prowess in battle, she feels a sort of respect for the brute. How this will hold in the war is unknown, but for now she helps him. It takes some time before they finally reach one of the many entrances of the tunnel system, the sinking light of dusk greeting their weary forms. It's here Chimera stops and looks to the mech at her side, almost feeling unsure what to say a moment before speaking. "I guess this is it.." Making sure he can brace himself, the femme steps away from him, taking a few steps forward and pausing to glance over her shoulder. "..Thank you. And I'm.. sorry for attacking you. My mind wasn't my own. Either way, you're a worthy opponent." Grimlock, even if she was as tall as he was, was no easy burden to share. He should know, he put up with himself all the time. With his good arm slung over her shoulders, he just had his wounded one left free to dangle. Dangerous, if she wanted to... If she wanted to do anything, she would have done it already. He'd peel off the faceplate of his helmet and gnaw her to death if he was pushed to it. So she recieved no complaints, just a grunt from behind the mask of grattitude and acknowledgement. And so the Rust Sea greets them once more, it's just ugly enough to almost make him miss the caverns. Then it arrives, that moment of farewells... Evenb with all of his mental faculties intact, Grimlock is no poet. He grunts his acknowledgement once more before he trusts himself to stand steady. He shines his eyes upon her, optics not trailing from optics. She.. well, it's almost embaressing, "Yeah..." he utters, "Same here..." he doesn't bother with the sob story. She knew more about it than most just by not being a mangled wreck back there in the tunnel. So silence hangs for a few moments more. stretching, dialating... "Take care." he utters before he turns away and heads in one direction or another, trusting to internal nav-systems to find him someplace he could call his boys. So that's it. They part ways, likely to never repeat this story to anyone else. At least she won't, not wishing anyone to associate her with the likes of him. Still.. Chimera stops atop one of the high dunes after trudging her way out into the desert, looking out across the sands behind her to see the steadily shrinking form of Grimlock. But before he can disappear completely he will hear a mighty roar echoing across the rust sea, and should he turn he'll see Chimera back in her altmode. Set against the sinking sun, the beast stares him down with glimmering optics, though she makes no move to go after him. Rather, she shows respect one of the few ways she knows, lifting head skyward and breathing a mighty column of fire into the air, a pillar of light against the encroaching darkness. The moment is brief, but meaningful, and once the flames are cut off she will nod to him. Only after this does she finally depart, slipping off down the other side of the dune and disappearing from sight.